Tuesday, March 9, 2010

A Greivis Outrage

Now, for your daily dose of total screw jobs:

Greivis Vasquez just won ACC Player of the Year.

Here's my reaction, expressed in weird clip art:


Short memories, huh voters? I guess a couple lucky shot-put prayers in the final game of the season are enough to sway 39 of the 53 folks who make the call. Let's take a closer look, just for fun.

Scheyer was never a natural point guard. Due to a lack of anyone else competently doing the job, Coach K asked him to assume the role last year, and he did a fine job while he learned the intricacies of the position. And this year? Let's take a look at one of the better stats used to measure PG proficiency: assist-to-turnover ratio. Scheyer had an astounding 3.0 attr, good for 5th in the entire nation.

Vasquez? 1.9. And he's supposed to be the born point guard!

And that's not the only place where Scheyer trumped Vasquez in efficiency. An 89% free throw shooter, and a 40% three-point shooter, Scheyer averaged 1.39 points per shot. All three of those stats trump Vasquez.

The last game obviously played a huge part in the final decision, but were any of the voters watching when Duke won by 22 at home? Where were they then?

Oh, and I bet that HUGE 41-point performance on the road at Virginia Tech was pretty important too, right? I wonder how well he shot that game...hmmm...how about 13 for fucking 33? That's not that great, folks. It's even below his season average; he just shot a lot. Any top player in a big conference can huck it up the same way.

And what the hell else were they looking at? Apparently, game averages. Game averages, that is, that will inherently favor a guy who takes more shots. Yes, Vasquez averaged .7 more points than Scheyer. But he attempted 40 more shots over the course of the season! And he's played one fewer game! So that stat's kinda useless, right? Remember how Duke has two other great performers who score an awful lot and need touches? Maryland's next highest scorer is Landon Millbourne. Ever heard of him? Me either. He contributes 12 per game. Nolan and Singler each average over 17 per. No comparison.

Vasquez also averages .9 assists more per game than Scheyer, but again, he turns the ball over 3.3 times, so that's pretty unimportant. LOOK AT THE EFFICIENCY STATISTICS, ASSHOLES.

This is the equivalent of a pitcher winning a Cy Young because he has the most wins, while the writers ignore ERA. Wouldn't happen, not anymore. So why is college basketball lagging behind?

By the way, Scheyer also has more steals, fewer personal fouls, more three-pointers (by 24), and more trips to the line.

The word 'outrage' is thrown around with great impunity, oftentimes in a comical fashion, but if there are outrages left in sports, this is one. Greivis, you're a turd. And you got lucky. Congrats. See you in the ACC title game, if you can make it that far, and then we'll find out how you match up with Scheyer on a neutral floor.

I DISLIKE YOU.


9 comments:

  1. Way to pick out the #'s that favor your guy...

    Vasquez had more pts, ast, rebs, and blks per game, as well as a better overall fg%. He's no slouch from the ft line at 85%, nor 3pt at 38%. Not to mention he played 3 min/game fewer than Sheyer. He's also the only Division I player averaging at least 19 points and six assists a game.

    The fact that Maryland's next best player is Landon Millbourn is even more of a reason to give it to Vasquez. Sheyer has much better teammates to rely on, yet Vasquez was able to lead his team to a share of the reg season title.

    I agree in that I think he's a complete douche and wouldn't ever want him on my team, but in my opinion he deserved the award this year.

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  2. oh, and they tied on steals/game

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  3. I would imagine this conspiracy was orchestrated by none other than the liberal elite Washington Post, the hometown paper of the Terps.

    In a move so cunning and evil the Post REFUSES it's right to vote on ACC POY, because it "reports the news it doesn't make it". So throw out the two donkeys from the blacksburg paper that voted for Delaney and Greenberg for both awards and you have a ton of Carolina writers voting for a guy from MD they all hate for POY.

    Why would they do this?

    Probably because Vasquez is the better player.

    That and when he kept hitting shots over Scheyer Scheyer kept responding by shooting layups into Vasquez's hand at the end of the MD/Duke game.

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  4. William - I addressed the stats you mentioned in the post.

    Points - yes, but he took 40 more shots than Scheyer while playing one fewer game. If you look at the points per shot statistic, Scheyer was significantly better.

    Assists - Again, Scheyer is the nominal PG, but Duke doesn't run their offense through him the same way Maryland runs through Vasquez. On any given possession, Nolan or Singler could be initiating the offense. The fact that Scheyer is within 1 assist of Vasquez shows, again, that he's more efficient with the ball. Plus, assists-to-turnover ratio is a better stat since it comes closer to measuring how positive your contribution is over the course of the game, and Scheyer kills him here.

    Rebounds - fine. Probably half his boards are on his own missed shots, but he can have this one.

    Blocks - really? Both player are point guards, and their totals are negligibile.

    Steals - Scheyer has 51, Vasquez has 47. They tied on %, but Scheyer has more steals, as I said in the post. Admittedly, I got tricky with this one.

    As to your last sentence, it's a good point, but it ignores the huge fact that Scheyer is playing out of position. Without the incredible adjustment he made, Duke probably loses 5-6 conference games instead of 3.

    There's certainly an argument for Vasquez, and I over-stated my point on purpose, but I stand by Scheyer as the right choice. If we had just fucking beat NC State on the road, we wouldn't even be having this discussion...but it is impressive that Maryland only dropped 3.

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  5. William - as a last thing, the crux of my argument is that when other numbers are very close, efficiency statistics should count more than "bulk" statistics. Obviously, some sort of base line has to be reached...if a dude is averaging 9 points per game, it doesn't matter how efficient he is. But when everything else is neck and neck, different story.

    And the only efficiency category where Vasquez beats Scheyer is FG%. The rest belong to Scheyer.

    Scar - the state of North Carolina is about 10% Duke fans, and 90% fans of other schools who hate Duke more than anyone. Across that state, Duke is far more hated than Maryland. But I'm not arguing conspiracy, just stupidity.

    PS Scheyer was fouled.

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  6. Eric Hayes runs the point twice as much as anyone else on Duke brings the ball up the court.

    You keep taking jabs at Vasquez for taking so many shots, but he makes a higher percentage of his shots than Scheyer does... so.... ummm.....

    Don't be mad at Vasquez, it's not his fault Coach K shortens his bench playing Scheyer so many minutes his legs are shot at the end of the game so he leaves everything short and gets pwned by a well rested Vasquez on both ends of the court on national TV in a game both players new was for player of the year.

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  7. I'm sure the voters' logic was that Vazquez played a far larger role than Scheyer on a less talented team that finished tied for the best record in the ACC. That is, Vazquez had to be more aggressive and take more shots because there were less options around him. Scheyer had two teammates who finished in the top 7 in All-ACC balloting, while Vazquez didn't have a teammate in the top 15.

    And I think the efficiency numbers bear that argument out: Scheyer, Smith, and Singler were each used about 23% of Duke's possessions. (This is why Scheyer was able to take a fair amount more 3's than 2's, a big boost to his efficiency numbers.) Vazquez used more than 30 percent of his team's possessions; the only other Maryland player who used even 20% of the team's possessions was Milbourne, and he shot only 44% in ACC play (36% down the stretch). For what it's worth, John Gasaway, about as big a proponent of efficiency metrics as you'll find anywhere, agrees with the selection of Vazquez.

    Oh, and for good measure, here's head-to-head (per game averages, MD vs. Duke):
    Vazquez: 18.5 pts, 52%/44%/88% shooting, 5.5 reb, 1.1 ast/to
    Scheyer: 20.5 pts, 39%/43%/82% shooting, 4 reb, 0.6 ast/to

    GO ASLEEP.

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  8. HAHAHAHAHA!!! I thought Grievis pwned Scheyer. That was nothing compared to what Head did to SPR. Nighty night little birdy...

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